TAXPAYERS could face a bill of up to £6.2billion for a new EU fund to hand out cash to countries that want to join the crisis-hit euro, it emerged yesterday.

Brussels chiefs are planning to borrow up to £42.5billion from the money markets to lend to Hungary, Romania and other EU states in line to sign up to the single currency.

The loans are designed to help them to balance their budgets and smooth their progress towards scrapping their national currencies.

Critics dismiss the plan as bribery designed to tempt more nations into the failed single-currency project.

The plan was revealed in a document from the Brussels-based European Commission yesterday.

It proposed to set up a financial assistance fund to help “a member state which is experiencing or is seriously threatened with difficulties in its balance of payments”.

The document makes clear that any decisions to raise and hand out cash can be taken under the EU’s “qualified majority voting” system, meaning the UK would not have a veto. In the case of a default on the loan, the EU would be liable for the cash and could be forced to raise its annual budget, with the burden falling on the 27 member states.

The EU should be looking to assist countries to escape the euro, not join it

Douglas Carswell, Tory MP

Under the EU funding formula, the UK could end up having to pay 14.5 per cent of any outstanding bill.

That would be on top of more than £12billion of UK taxpayers’ money already plunged into shoring up the euro by bailing out debt- ­ridden EU nations.

It emerged earlier this week that the UK will have to pay £38.2million towards an £8.5billion deal to rescue Cyprus from bankruptcy. The document also makes clear that the EU can assume extra powers to direct the economic policies of member states where there are “significant problems in the implementation of policies that reduce budget deficits”.

EU chiefs have earmarked £11.5billion of the loans for Romania, Latvia and Hungary. Under EU treaties, all member states except the UK are expected to join the euro eventually. Tim Aker, of the Get Britain Out group, said: “This new mechanism shows how dire the EU’s finances are. Its eurozone bailout mechanism has failed, so now it wants one for non-eurozone states.”

Tory MP Douglas Carswell said: “This sounds like a slush fund to bribe countries to try to get their political elites to join their crazed monetary project.

“The EU should be looking to assist countries to escape the euro, not join it.”